Electronics genius needed for my next mod...

[Garth]

Right then, I need some assistance with this one.

My plan is to ditch the cheap looking climate displays and replace them with audi red lcd job to match the display between the dials. I want to use displays like he ones in this pic:
http://www.audipic.com/audi/2009/08/2007-Audi-RS4-Interior-1280x960.jpg

My plan is to remove the lcd screens from my car and simplay place the new ones in there. My problem is, I'm not sure of the protocols of these devices and need to know what I'm going to need to convert the signal from my climate controls to the displays.

I was hoping that since they're both VAG, it should be minimum, but with them being a different technology, chances are I going to need to get some microcontrollers and start programming again.

[animal]

Have you compared the pin-out on the two displays? Are they physically the same? If so, it could be as simple as a direct swap and a steady hand.

If not, I'd say you have your work cut out for you. The coding for these is probably hard-coded on the chips on the PCB within the climate control unit. I'd be suprised if you could get in and modify this, even with VCDS.

[JPC]

i think you'd be far better off soldering in some Red SMT LED (surface mounted LEDs)

you'd have to be pretty steady at soldering though, i used to swap LED colours in phones years ago all the time, im planning on changing my dials to White from blue soon

[animal]

i think you'd be far better off soldering in some Red SMT LED (surface mounted LEDs)

you'd have to be pretty steady at soldering though, i used to swap LED colours in phones years ago all the time, im planning on changing my dials to White from blue soon

I was going to suggest this, but it still wouldn't match the inverted LCD used for the High/Mid-line and Audi's displays. It would look a bit naff with black digits and probably be quite hard to read too.

[Garth]

My soldering is awesome 
I did an electrical and electronic engineering degree a long time ago
I've already changed the smt leds in my climate controls and they're TINY! (check out my build thread)

As Animal says, it would look naff and be almost impossible to read if I just changed the illumination colour. If I wanted to get really creative, I could swap to red led's and reverse the illumination so that it was red numbers on a black background, but it would still be almost impossible to read!
The displays are just too crap for the job and the audi ones are much better.

[DaveB@Vagbremtechnic]

Ray did this to his bora sport clocks over on uk-mkivs.....

Is this what yo umeant or am i barking up the wrong tree

[Garth]

Ray did this to his bora sport clocks over on uk-mkivs.....

Is this what yo umeant or am i barking up the wrong tree

Spot on mate! Thanks, do you have a link to any details?

[animal]

My soldering is awesome 
I did an electrical and electronic engineering degree a long time ago
I've already changed the smt leds in my climate controls and they're TINY! (check out my build thread)

As Animal says, it would look naff and be almost impossible to read if I just changed the illumination colour. If I wanted to get really creative, I could swap to red led's and reverse the illumination so that it was red numbers on a black background, but it would still be almost impossible to read!
The displays are just too crap for the job and the audi ones are much better.

Thinking about it, and looking at the above - isn't just a case if fitting red LEDs and inverting the display?

[Garth]

My soldering is awesome 
I did an electrical and electronic engineering degree a long time ago
I've already changed the smt leds in my climate controls and they're TINY! (check out my build thread)

As Animal says, it would look naff and be almost impossible to read if I just changed the illumination colour. If I wanted to get really creative, I could swap to red led's and reverse the illumination so that it was red numbers on a black background, but it would still be almost impossible to read!
The displays are just too crap for the job and the audi ones are much better.

Thinking about it, and looking at the above - isn't just a case if fitting red LEDs and inverting the display?

Not quite. That wouldn't quite do it. If your lightss were off, all you would see would be a dark screen with green/grey digits (no backlight).
I'm after something that works exactly like the mfd display.

[animal]

Ah, very good point! Doh! You just need to modify the supply to the LEDs then?

[DaveB@Vagbremtechnic]

http://uk-mkvs.net/forums/t/239924.aspx?PageIndex=5

You can contact Ray by PM over there, hes a really lovely bloke - tell him you spoke to me he'll try to help, he's forever busy though, he's very knowledgable on VAG electronics and has even written his own software for grabbing codes, he's way past enabling miles to empty and coding keys!

[Lyons]

JPC, did you ever change your dial lights from blue to white? Do you have any pictures of it done already?